No, not a backpack from Mission Workshop, an "original" 1882 Duluth "Poirier Pack Sack". To be completely honest with you, until today, I had never heard of this "holy grail" of backpacks. Oldest backpack brand I know is the Trapper Nelson. But seems this backpack has some historical significance, at least to the guy in Minnesota trying to sell it for $100,000 $50,000. His listing on eBay has the full details of the pack, but here are some teasers to get you ready to drop the 50 Gs:

Up for auction is the holy grail of camping/ hiking equipment in this patented in 1882 Duluth "Poirier Pack Sack" Backpack Rucksack Bag. (Actual Date on this Camille Poirier Strap Pack is "PAT'D NOV. 10. 1882.") The application for the "Pack Strap" at the US Patent Office was filed on October 11, 1882. Handmade in Duluth, Minnesota by Camille Poirier himself, who pioneered the company (today known as Duluth Pack, Duluth-MN). A lot of history is attached to this item so please sit back and enjoy.

According to the patent filed by Camille Poirier (No 268,932 and is included with my pictures above), he "invented a new and improved Pack-Strap for holding and packing articles of clothing, provisions, and other articles which are to be carried in a package on the back. The invention consists in a bag formed with a flap and provided with shoulder straps and head-strap for supporting and carrying the bag on the back."  In this bag's amazing design, Poirier was credited with the "tumpline" which is a strap attached at both ends to a backpack and used to carry the object by placing the strap over the top of the head. Later on Poirier's design came to be called the "Duluth Pack" after the village in which Poirier ran his business.

You read it right, the backpack combines a head strap with shoulder straps, as you can see from the picture. Wonder how that felt, but I can tell you I've watched people carry washers and dryers up 4 flights of stairs this way, so there has to be some merit to the idea. Graham, how about putting together a prototype for us? Bid on the 1882 Duluth PATD "Poirier Pack STRAP Sack" Backpack Bag and buy yourself a piece of outdoor history. Via Vedavoo.

Forget Ben Bernanke, the world financial markets need to look for financial salvation from the Gear Junkie, Stephen Regenold. I'm not 100% certain on this, but he's either giving away a few personal bailouts of your toxic mortgage portfolios or he's giving away an adventure travel trip. Kind of amiguous to me when I read it, since you know English is like my 3rd or 4th language and I have the attention span of a 3 year old snorting Captain Crunch. Nevertheless, he asked us to post about it and so we are. Because we back our brother bloggers up, even when they're not really bloggers, more like serious, good, writers, moonlighting as bloggers to make a few extra bucks. So please someone go visit his site and report back exactly what the sweepstakes is for, because my toxic loan portfolios are killing me. If it's for personal bailouts I'm on that like white on rice. I'm also in if he's teaching people how to not end sentences with prepositions. If it's just an adventure travel trip, I'll pass. Every day that I open the paper and look at my stock portfolio is an adventure travel trip that I don't think I'll ever recover from.